A concrete example of a kana-to-kanji conversion system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 7-85025. According to this publication, there is disclosed a technology in which a character string inputted using a keyboard in the side of a client is displayed in kana on a CRT without transmission of the character string to a server. In this case, some application for converting the inputted character string in kana for obtaining a kana character string (a character string that comprises Roman letters and kana mixed therein and in which the kana has yet to be converted to a character string with Roman letters, kana and kanji mixed therein) is required in the side of the client, which causes a heavy load on the client side in the system.
To solve this problem, system configuration is conceivable in which the function of outputting a kana character string is allocated to the side of server and the function of displaying the kana character string sent from the server is allocated to the side of clients. FIG. 10 is a view for explaining the concept of a kana-to-kanji conversion system based on the conventional technology. As shown in FIG. 10, if a server 5 takes charge of the entire kana-to-kanji conversion including the processing for outputting a kana character string, a character string inputted in the side of a client 6 is transmitted to the server 5 as it is and is converted to kana character string in the server 5. The kana character string converted by the server 5 is returned to the client 6, and the kana character string sent from the server 5 is displayed in the client 5.
Taking a user interface into consideration, it is important that the response time, which a time elapsed when a user inputs a character string using the keyboard and the kana character string is displayed on the screen of a CRT, is short so that it does not cause stress to the user. If the response time is long or it is not constant, the rhythm of inputting characters is disturbed, and the user gets stressed. Accordingly, in recent years, there has been expected a proposal of a kana-to-kanji conversion system with which the problems as described above can be solved as quickly as possible.